


What Are Brothers For

by aceofwhump



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Caretaking, Gen, Hurt Diego Hargreeves, Injury, Major Character Injury, Protective Diego Hargreeves, Stitches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-26 13:25:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19006690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aceofwhump/pseuds/aceofwhump
Summary: Diego gets injured and Klaus has to patch him up. Includes stoic Diego, sober Klaus, Diego's fear of needles, and some good ole whump.





	What Are Brothers For

**Author's Note:**

> This is a request I got over at my tumblr aceofwhump.tumblr.com.

Klaus staggered through front doors of the Academy, knees nearly buckling under the weight of his brother. One arm was wrapped firmly around Diego’s waist to hold him up while his other held onto Diego’s wrist which was hanging around Klaus’ neck. Diego, awake and aware but clearly in pain, limped along as much as he could but the massive gash on his thigh made it difficult for him to walk. Which is why Klaus had become the human crutch.

Instead of attempting to make it up the stairs, Klaus turned them both towards the living room. His limbs were shaking from the strain of supporting Diego’s weight and if he didn’t set him down soon he’d drop him right here on the floor.

“What are you doing?” Diego said through clenched teeth as Klaus practically dragged him through the entrance into the living room.

“There’s no way we were gonna make it up the steps. You can barely walk and I’m not gonna be able to carry your ass up all those steps. So you’re just gonna sit here,” Klaus grunted as he deposited Diego not so gently on one of the couches. Diego groaned and grabbed at his leg as the pain spiked. Klaus was out of breath from toting his brother around and paused to catch his breath. “And I’m gonna go get the supplies we need from the infirmary.”

Diego gave his assent via a sharp nod and Klaus darted away, tripping up the first step in his haste and crawling up the next few before he rights himself.

Several minutes later, Klaus ran back into the room with his arms full of medical supplies. Bits and pieces fell to the ground as he ran with him not noticing. He went straight to where Diego laid and tossed them all on the ground beside him. He knelt down and started rooting around the pile finally picking up a bundle of gauze bandages.

Klaus had a clear view of the wound now and he had to admit it: he was scared. It’s nasty looking. Long and deep and still bleeding. He hesitated before touching it not wanting to cause Diego any more pain. He’d caused Diego enough pain as it is. If it weren’t for him, Diego would never had been hurt in the first place.

“Klaus? You okay there?”

“Me? Yeah of course. Okay stop the bleeding. Stop the bleeding. I can do this.” Klaus’ hands shook as he cleaned the wound. Diego tried to look stoic as Klaus poured the alcohol over the wound and pressed the gauze down on top of it. Despite the fact that he must be in severe pain, Diego didn’t make a sound. Klaus did his best to not cause anymore pain but it’s a losing battle he’s fighting and by the look on Diego’s face this definitely was painful. He continued to apologize until Diego hissed at him to just get it done.

Once Klaus cleaned the wound he picked up a sterile needle from the pile next to him. “It looks like you’re gonna need stitches. The wound looks pretty deep and you’re still bleeding.”

Before he can get anywhere close to Diego’s wound, Diego interrupted him, pulling his leg away out of Klaus’ reach. “Don’t fucking go anywhere near me with that needle, man! I’m serious!”

“Oh come one Diego! I can do it! I swear!” Klaus said holding the needle in one hand and a bundle of bandages in the other. Klaus was…semi-confident that he could do this. They’d all been trained plus his time in Vietnam taught him far more about wounds like this then Reginald could ever teach him. He’d stitched up a knife wound here and there while in the jungles. Not a lot but enough that he at least knew what to do.

“No way I’m letting you anywhere near me with that thing. The last time you tried to do it yourself you were high as a kite and I still have the scar from it.”

“Okay well first off I’m sober at the moment. Full week now as a matter of fact. Thanks for noticing. Secondly who else is gonna do it? I’m the only here, Diego and you can’t leave your leg like that.” He let his arms fall to his sides and sat back on his haunches. “Besides you can hardly see the scar anymore. Big baby.” he said the last bit to himself.

“Sober or not you ain’t touching me with that. I’ll do it myself. Give it.”

Diego took the needle out of Klaus’s hand and sat up on the couch, pulling himself up so that he could lean against the back of the couch. He got close to his skin with the needle but before he touch his skin he started feeling lightheaded and promptly passed out, falling onto the couch in a heap.

Klaus instinctively reached out to catch him as he fell but he collapsed too quickly. Klaus let his hands fall back to his sides and he stared at Diego lying on the couch in a heap for a moment before picking up the needle Diego had dropped on the ground.

“Yup that’s about right. Poor Diego. You and needles just don’t get along do ya,” he said, patting Diego on the head a couple of times.

Klaus resterilized the needle the best he could and stitched up Diego’s leg. A bit clumsily but it got the job done and if it leaves a scar it won’t be because of his sewing skills. Besides he had Ben to walk him through what he didn’t know. He bandaged him up the rest of the way, carefully wrapping gauze around his thigh and elevating Diego’s leg on pillow, and sat down crossed legged on the floor next to the couch. Now he just had to wait for Diego to wake up.

Klaus wasn’t one for sitting still. Hee lasted all of 1 minute before he got bored. He changed positions a few times but that didn’t help. Then he decided to make something to eat so he went downstairs and made a bowl of cereal and some toast and brought it back to the living room where Diego was still sound sleep.

Klaus sat down and ate his food far too quickly. Once his food was gone he grew bored again. He and Ben try playing patty cake again which killed a few more minutes. Finally, Klaus decided to go to his room and get his knitting. Might as well work on his project while he waited for Diego to come back around.

He was still detangling his yarn when Diego moaned and shifted in his sleep, slowly coming out of unconsciousness. He put his bundle on his lap and watched him wake up.

“Good morning Sleeping Beauty! Man you took your sweet time waking up. I started making a scarf for Vanya. What do you think?” He held up his bundle of yarn which in no way, shape, or form resembles a scarf and smiled.

Diego squinted at Klaus and attempted to sit up. Ignoring his statement about the scarf Diego asked, “What happened?”

Klaus sighed and set his yarn aside, “You got stabbed in the leg and then passed out when you looked at a needle.”

Diego examined the bandage around his thigh, “You did this?”

“Yup. It’s not the prettiest but you’re no longer bleeding so I’d call it a win.”

Diego lifted the bandage up slightly to take a look at stitches underneath. They were slightly eschew but seemed to be effective. “Doesn’t look too bad…Thanks.”

“Sure thing. I mean you did get stabbed saving my ass so I kind of owed you.”

“Damn right. Maybe next time you’ll think twice before you piss off a guy twice your size who also happens to have several friends with big pointy things that can hurt you.”

“Yeah I doubt it but thanks anyway.”

“What did you say to that guy anyway? Whatever it was really pissed him off.”

“Um something about his mother and group of baboons?”

“Really?”

“I mean I think? It’s all kinda a blur. I say things, you know how it is,” he said waving a hand dismissively.

“Well it looks like I’m not gonna be walking around too much with this leg. Since it’s your fault you can help me out. Go get me a sandwich. I’m hungry.”

“Excuse moi? I am not your servant.”

“Fine. I’ll just limp my way down the stairs and hope this massive knife wound doesn’t cause me to fall down and hurt myself further. You know, the wound that I got saving your hide.”

“It was kind of your fault, Klaus,” Ben interjected.

Klaus hissed at Ben. He grimaced in disgust but reluctantly stood up, his shoulders slumped. Throwing his arms in the air he shouted, “Fine! Jeezus you get a guy stabbed once and he won’t let it go.”

“Thank you, Klaus,” Diego shouted at Klaus’ retreating back.

Klaus responded by throwing up his middle finger as he walked out of the room.

“Oh I could get used to this.”


End file.
